this comes after investigation by the u.s. anti-doping agency and the group's decision to ban armstrong from cycling for life and strip him of all his tour de france titles. armstrong has repeatedly denied doping but nike released a statement which reads in part due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that armstrong participated in doping and mislead nike for more than a decade. it's with great sadness that we discontinue our contract with him. they will continue to support live strong. trace gallagher tracking developments from our west coast news hub. he step down live strong chairman to spare the foundation from controversy? >> yeah, that's right. live strong wants to make it very clear, jon, that they did not ask lance armstrong to step aside. in fact they are saying it was all lance's idea. live strong had been a very strong defender of lance armstrong through the this entire ordeal and they continue to do so today, saying that cancer patients and their families are not troubled at all by lance armstrong's whoas. but